Ep. 109 - No Studio, No Blueprint, No Problem: Bringing Ballet to Pakistan with Lauren Woodbury

What does it take to bring ballet to a place where it doesn't exist yet? Today's guest, Lauren, found herself living in Islamabad, Pakistan — a city of over a million people with no ballet studio — and decided to build one herself.

In this episode, Lauren shares how a love story brought her from Fargo, North Dakota to the capital of Pakistan, and how her lifelong connection to ballet eventually led her to found the Islamabad School of Ballet. We talk about how she got started teaching out of a converted storage room, the seminar she put together to introduce ballet to an unfamiliar audience (and the overwhelming response she didn't expect), the logistical challenges of building a school without the infrastructure most of us take for granted, and how she navigated it all with creativity, persistence, and a willingness to start imperfectly.

We also talk about her school's very first performance — a 30-minute adaptation of Swan Lake — the moment her students stepped onstage, and the way ballet is transforming confidence in dancers who are discovering it for the very first time.

In this episode, we cover:

• Her non-linear ballet journey: from childhood classes in North Dakota to returning as an adult
• The spark that led her to start the Islamabad School of Ballet
• How she introduced ballet in a community where it doesn't really exist
• The logistical challenges of building a studio without existing infrastructure
• How word of mouth and Instagram grew the school to 45–50 students in less than a year!
• The school's first performance: a 30-minute adaptation of Swan Lake
• How ballet is impacting students who are discovering it for the first time
• How she adapted classical ballets to suit her students
• What she would tell anyone who wants to start something new but is held back by imposter syndrome
• How she's giving back through monthly donations to children's organizations in Pakistan

👉🏼 Connect with Lauren: @islamabadschoolofballet

✨ This Episode is Sponsored By:

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Podcast produced by Mission Bridge Media.
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